Montreal Day 1

“When Dave Sax arrived at my Montreal apartment to research his book, I was pleased for two reasons. First, I knew I would have the opportunity to spend 3 or 4 days with my good friend David — always a delight. Second, I knew that I would be eating some delicious smoked meat. Though I’ve only lived in Montreal for 3 weeks, I feel that my connection to smoked meat is deep, and intense; a cow’s blood running through my veins. And in this twisted, meaty bloodline, Dave Sax is my brother.”
-Benjamin Leszcz

Thank you Ben. If it weren’t for the hospitality and floors of friends like you, this deli odyssey would go no further than my own home. A zei gezunt.

24 hrs in Montreal and already I question why I ever moved away, why my parents moved away, indeed why so many Jewish deli lovers moved away. In my opinion, Montreal is a deli town in a league of its own. It has some of the oldest, smallest, and most distinctive — and delicious — delicatessens in this world, based on its almost-mythological smoked meat. This is a product not unlike pastrami, though different in so many delicious ways. I’m not nearly done investigating, though I will say that the principal difference is that pastrami is most often made with the navel cut (a flatter, often tougher cut), while smoked meat is made with the brisket. Spicing is different, though I’ve yet to fully figure it out. Lord knows, I might never. Then there is the ubiquitous hand cutting, and the black cherry, and of course the jolie twist of la belle langue de les Quebecois.

Montreal’s deli scene is old school in the greatest sense, and I was lucky to have visited two of the great classics today: Lester’s and Wilensky’s.

Lester’s Delicatessen

My father grew up near Lester’s, in the leafy neighborhood of Outremont. He always raved about their smoked turkey, though I’m ashamed to say that I hadn’t eaten there since I was a child. I’ve tragically missed out.

The smoked meat at Lester’s ranks amongst the tops in the city. When hand-sliced by the expert cutter, the paper thin slices peel away from the meat like petals from a rose. Propped atop a small disc of rye (Montreal’s sandwiches tend to be smaller than other cities, but cost far less), slathered with mustard, the sandwich dissapears in several crucial bites.

Lester’s owner Billy Berenholc says that the steam opens the pores of the meat, letting the flavour aerate and intensify. All I knew was that it was beautiful, and my lunch companion — Montreal’s preserver of history — Mr. Eiran Harris.

On a warm summer day, the patio at Lester’s mixes the best of European cafe lifestyle, with the tastiest Eastern European meats. Heaven.

One Montreal food item that falls like heaven upon my tongue is karnatzel, a dried, narrow salami that reeks of garlic and is the perfect entry to a deli meal. The Montreal way to eat it is wrapped in a mustard-painted slice of rye. Others call it a pepperoni stick, but I think karnatzel has more flavor and less of that Slim Jim peppery junk than others. I could eat it in my sleep.

Lester’s also has excellent fries, frosted Muggs of root beer, a sweet coleslaw, and the smoked turkey my dad loves. Best of all, Lester’s delivers pre-cut, ready to eat packages of their smoked meat and stellar brisket all over North America. All you have to do is boil the package, cut it open, place it on the bread et voila! As you read this, whether in Miami or Vancouver, know that you are one click away from a delicious smoked meat sandwich splattering your keyboard with delicious mustard and grease droppings. So what are you waiting for?
www.lestersdeli.com
www.montrealsmokedmeat.com

1057 Bernard Ouest, Outremont, QC, H2V 1V1
514-213-1313

Wilensky’s Light Lunch

Purely and simply I love Wilensky’s more than any other deli I’ve ever encountered. Perhaps it is because I was taken there as a young child by my father. Perhaps it is because we returned on every subsequent trip to Montreal, my brother and I planning our schedules so we could fit in a trip to the corner shrine at Fairmount and Clark. Mostly though, it is because of The Wilensky Special, a sandwich of such perfect simplicity, it has become the stand alone reason for Wilensky’s 75 year existence.

Wilensky’s consists of a small wooden counter and nine wooden stools, an antique soda fountain, fading newspaper and magazine clippings, and rows of old paperbacks, selling for half the price of what’s advertised on the cover. My dad used to read dirty novels there until he was booted out by the late owner, Moe Wilensky. Nogoodnick.

Moe Wilensky’s legacy is the Wilensky Special, a grilled sandwich that consists of five slices of three different types of salami, with a slice and a half of bologna on a pletzl roll. Mustard on one side. Simple. Elegant. Perfect. When done right the flat sandwich crunches into several steaming bites of slippery salami, the salty flavor brought alive by the sharp kiss of yellow mustard. I’ve had dozens over my lifetime, and pray to have dozen’s more. Thankfully, Mrs. Ruth Wilensky, and her children Asher and Sharon, as well as the late Bernard, are the most diligent breed of deli purists. Nothing at Wilensky’s has changed in three quarters of a century, and in this case, preservation equals perfection.

Washed down with a hand jerked cherry soda or chocolate egg cream, there is no greater deli snack in my knowledge. It goes down like heaven, and unless you fire down six like my friend Steve Katz did back in 1999, there is no pain in the pursuit of this treat. No deli fan has lived until they’ve eaten at Wilensky’s. Go.

Wilensky’s Light Lunch
34 Fairmount St. West
Montreal,QC
514-271-0247

By the end of the day I had sent more than $100 in Lester’s smoked meat and Wilensky’s specials to my brother in Calgary, who will probably receive his fragrant package by the time he reads this tomorrow.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 5th, 2007 at 9:20 pm and is filed under Area Roundup. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.